Haunting Dreams
by Fearlesswriter6
Summary: After a nightmare leaves Clint shaken, fluff ensues.


**Author's Notes:****_Talking about random ideas and this came to me. I actually started to get a little misty-eyed while writing this. Whether or not the same holds up for you...who knows. You be the judge of that._**

_**By the way, the next chapter in Shooting Lessons is coming soon, I have half of chapter 11 done, I'm sorry for the wait. MEEP.**_

_**Enjoy!**_

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It was fast, faster than both of them had anticipated. The ancient building was supposed to be deserted, but Clint and Natasha knew better than to just waltz in there with overconfidence bubbling up around them. Indeed, there had been people waiting for them, but the two didn't anticipate that they would show themselves so quickly.

Natasha and Clint were outnumbered and outgunned in every category. These weren't normal people, they appeared more agile than Clint and Natasha both as they swung down from rafters and other unknown hiding places. There were about fifteen of them encircling them. Clint backed up to Natasha and whispered so only she could hear. "What are our odds here? Fifteen people that look more advanced versus two…"

Natasha thought for a moment and whispered back. "We can sure as hell try, but nothing is for certain. My bet, we'll take out five together before they catch us." Natasha reached down to her gun to check the bullets.

Clint weighed his options in his mind. "I'll bet we'll get six."

"You're on Barton." Was all Natasha uttered before she was out and guns blazing. Of course, the enemy had guns as well. They started shooting almost immediately. Clint loosed an arrow and was shocked when the target dodged it and came straight at him. Adjusting his aim in a second before the man got to him, he shot an arrow and it hit the man square in the chest. A breath escaped him as he sunk to the floor.

"One!" Clint shouted over at Natasha who was handling double her weight.

Clint could see her strain a laugh as she knocked one of the men she was fighting out with the butt of her gun. She shot another in the knee and turned to face Clint who was beginning to become overpowered.

Natasha made to run over to her partner to help him when the sudden intense pain in her thigh made her yelp and drop to the floor. Clint got distracted. He looked over at his partner lying wounded on the floor as she tried to get up and fend for herself. One of the men roundhouse kicked him which made him falter and let out a grunt of pain. He bent over in pain and slipped his knife out of the sheath that was strapped to his thigh.

He lashed out causing the knife to make contact with enemy flesh. He continued until one from behind came and took hold of his hair. He balled it up in a fist making Clint crane his neck to avoid further pain.

"Enough!" a strong voice—most likely the one holding Clint—spoke up. "Grab the girl and follow me." The hold on Clint's hair was released but was replaced by two burly men who securely had their grip on Clint. They grabbed Natasha up off of the floor where she had been kicked. She had a cut on her cheek and her right thigh was still bleeding from the bullet wound she had received.

They walked into the next room where the apparent leader stood and waited for his followers. It took three men to hold each of the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in place. Rope was binding their hands now, with two men holding them in place and the last from behind gripping their hair painfully tight to make sure that they couldn't escape. They were disarmed, their weapons thrown at the leader's feet.

From a little more than six feet away stood Natasha with her signature stoic face even though her head was pulled back from the grip on her hair. The leader stepped forward and talked in an accent that Clint couldn't place which was odd for him.

"Who do you work for?" So the man was going to be direct. It was easy enough to tell that neither of them were talking. "I've heard _much _about you two. Such infamous names float about the world of crime and smuggling. _Black Widow, Hawkeye. _But who do you work for? When I'm done with you, how do I get to them?" The man holding Natasha's hair yanked back causing her to hiss in pain. This was one of the many reasons why Clint was worried about her having long hair.

"Just think," the man continued. "What I would be like if I killed you two. I'd be praised! The world's most dangerous assassins, gone almost simultaneously; but if you two won't willingly give me the agency you work for, I guess I'll just have to _pick_ it out of you…" He nodded to one of his men who took out a gun from his coat and promptly shot Clint in the knee. He yelped in pain as he staggered.

Clint drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled through his nose. The man walked over to Clint with a wicked blade in his hand. He looked like he might be Italian, Greek maybe. He smiled, traces of yellow on his teeth. "Oh yes, I've heard about you Hawkeye. Some people toss around the name _Clint Barton._" He pulled the knife up to Clint's face and pressed it behind his hear. Small rivulets of warm blood slipped down his neck making Clint's breathing falter slightly.

The man walked away from Clint and crossed the short distance to Natasha. Her expression was rigid as he looked her up and down in her skin tight suit. "My, my…if it isn't the _infamous _Black Widow. What a pleasure it is to have you in my company." He played with a loose curl that fell in front of her face. He took the knife he was using earlier on Clint and wiped the small area of blood across Natasha's uninjured cheek. The leader turned away from Natasha and walked a few steps away. "Such a shame to damage a face as pretty and attractive as yours," He turned around abruptly though and sunk his knife into Natasha's stomach. A sharp gasp mixed with a cry of pain escaped her lips. "But no one said anything about your body…"

Clint's knees buckled. His restraints held him up but his blood instantly ran cold. He could see the leader from here pull out the knife and hear Natasha's choking noises that were filling the quiet space. He plunged it back into her a little further up making her cry out in pain.

"Natasha!" Clint yelled. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes that said nothing except 'I'm sorry'. The leader pulled the knife out once more and motioned for the guards to step away from her. She crumpled to the floor blood pooling instantly. Clint struggled against the guards holding him crying out her name. There was no way that he was going to let her leave him here all alone.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the leader motion to the people holding Clint to break his bonds. They did so and Clint fell to his knees. He didn't even think about going after the man who had done this, he just knew that he needed to get to his partner before she died.

He turned her over and lifted her head into his lap. "Natasha! Natasha please!" he begged. Her green eyes, dazed and glassy, looked up at him with pain and confusion.

"Clint…" She tried to get words out of her mouth but her body was moving 100 times slower than her brain.

"Natasha, Natasha I'm here. Please, please don't leave me. I'm going to get help. Coulson and Fury are on their way. You just stay with me okay!" Tears burned at the back of his throat. There were so many things that he wanted to say to her that time wouldn't permit.

"I...lo-love…you…" Natasha managed. Tears pooled at her eyes as she looked up at him. "I'm sorry."

Clint's tears came freely now. "Natasha, please… Don't say that, not yet. Help is coming."

She nodded feebly, her eyes fluttering closed.

"I- I love you Tasha." Tears were running down his face and at this point he didn't care who saw him. He hugged her broken body and sobbed. The last time he had cried like that was when he had found out his parents had died and he was going to go and live in an orphanage.

One of the leader's henchmen came up behind him and pulled his head up. "The agency you work for. Its name." The leader spoke from behind him.

Clint thought. It didn't matter anymore. In a way, S.H.I.E.L.D. had contributed to Natasha's demise and Clint no longer wanted anything to do with them. "S.H.I.E.L.D." he stated simply. He could practically feel the leader behind him smile. Clint heard the click of a pistol and then everything went dark.

* * *

Clint woke with a start. He sat up in his bed breathing heavily staring straight into the darkness. His shirt was drenched in sweat and his whole body was shaking. He looked at his hands and clenched them into fists trying to stop himself from shaking. Absentmindedly he realized that among the sweat drenching his face, there were tears. He brought one of his hands up to his eyes and wiped them away, wanting to leave no trace of the horrible nightmare he had just had.

He ran his fingers through his wet hair and tried to calm his breathing. He had absolutely no idea why his brain had come up with that scenario, but that was his brain… He bent his head down to his legs which were pulled close to his chest. He sat there for what must have been fifteen minutes trying to control his breathing and emotions.

Natasha rolled over at one point, stretching her arm out to feel the warmth of Clint lying beside her, but instead, all she felt was the material of the sheets on the bed. She lifted her head off of the pillow and looked at Clint. "Clint..." She looked over at him with bleary eyes. She couldn't see him clearly in the dark, but the hunched up figure sitting up in the bed said enough. She reached over and turned on the bedside lamp so she could see him a little better.

Clint didn't look up at Natasha's call. He sat there still hunched afraid that if he looked at her she would be a bloody mess like she had appeared in his nightmare.

"Clint." Natasha stated with more force. She sat up and crawled over to where he sat.

She sat on her heels as she rubbed his back and took her hands and lifted his chin gently to meet her eyes. Reluctantly his eyes met hers. Her heart ached for Clint as he sat next to her. His eyes were red as if he had been crying. His whole body was cold with sweat and he was barely shaking still. She looked over him confused and at a loss for words. "What…what happened to you?"

Clint's eyes met the floor to avoid looking into his partner's eyes. "Clint, please talk to me. I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Still looking at the floor, Clint mumbled his response. "It was—it was a bad dream. You were killed first…then I was. I couldn't save you in time." A few tears escaped his eyes which he promptly wiped away accompanied by a swift sniff through his nose. He had been trying to push the dream as far away as possible, but now the full brunt of it came back. He drew a sharp breath in as he recalled Natasha's sorry eyes and her dying in his arms.

Natasha directed his face towards her. "I promise that it'll be okay. I'm not dying on you anytime soon." Gently she leaned into him and kissed him. It wasn't supposed to be a strong passionate kiss; instead it was a kiss that reassured him that she wasn't dead, that she wasn't going anywhere.

Clint smiled against the kiss with his eyes still closed. "Thank you for that." His voice took on a more confident tone than earlier. Somehow having Natasha being with him and promising that he would be fine reassured him. He reached up and cupped her face in his hands planting a more solid and passionate kiss onto her lips.

Clint pulled away breathing moderately. "I think I have to tell you something." Natasha opened her eyes and looked up at him. "It's a secret though."

"What is it? I love secrets." Natasha stated almost excited. Clint's tone was slightly nervous though which brought down Natasha's excitement.

Clint sat back a little in bed contemplating his options on what to tell Natasha. "I wasn't sure until very recently, but Tasha…I think…I think I might be actually falling for you."

Natasha's voice caught in her throat as the full force of what Clint soaked in. "L-love?" Clint didn't say anything for a moment while Natasha looked at him in disbelief. If anything, he expected Natasha to pick up her things and leave the room. She wasn't one to talk about emotions very often so he figured she was having a tough time at the moment.

Without thinking for another second Natasha practically tackled Clint on the bed. She gripped his face between her petite hands and smashed her lips against his. Taken by surprise, he fell backwards onto the bed with her lying on top of him. He ran his fingers through her curly hair trying to stay on the edge of humanity away from the frightening dream he was dealing with a little more than forty-five minutes ago.

Clint managed to squeeze a smile in between one of their many kisses. "Is that a yes then?"

Natasha smiled. "Just shut up and kiss me Barton." Clint chuckled as he reached up and pulled Natasha back down to his lips. Who cared if it was the middle of the night?

Clint had just admitted to his longtime partner that he had loved her and she had pretty much agreed. Not even Tony invading on them right now could spoil his amazing mood.

"I love you Clint." Natasha breathed. Clint smiled and pulled her closer. This was the start of a beautiful relationship Clint thought to himself as he lay next to the woman he had loved for the longest time.

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**Author's notes: ****_SOOOO what did you think? I really liked writing this. I hope that the ending didn't seem TOO odd...I don't know. _**

**_Anyways! Tell me what you think so I can get better everyday!_**


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